The sulphurous smoke hangs o’er them like a pall,

While reeling round they struggle, strike and fall.

Foremost of all, conspicuous, Gilbert stood,

His whirling sabre dripping red with blood;

Gleamed his gray eye, his lordly brow was bare,

In tangled masses fell his raven hair,

Like weeds they fall where’er his weapon swept,

Still round his form a vacant ring he kept,

Where his blade gleams they sink with quivering cry,

And still through all one plume attracts his eye.